With the help of friends, a designer and woodworker, Berkowitz fashioned what he calls a pod. The pod sits in his friend’s living room, and Berkowitz pays $400 a month for the space. The other residents of the apartment pay around $1000 for their bedrooms.

The pod is mostly filled with Berkowitz’s bed, but there are a few storage shelves at one end, and it’s also equipped with a fold-out desk. A string of LEDs around the ceiling provide light and ambience while a fan and ventilation system ensure the pod doesn’t get stuffy. Berkowitz is also currently soundproofing the pod using cork.

“Yes, living in a pod is silly. But the silliness is endemic to San Francisco’s absurdly high housing prices – the pod is just a solution that works for me,” Berkowitz said on his blog. “People are typically surprised that I would want to live in a pod, but I think they tend to underestimate how pleasant a pod can be if it’s designed smartly. It’s the coziest bedroom I’ve ever had.”

It cost $1,300 to build the pod, so spread out over a year, Berkowitz will pay $108 a month plus the $400 for rent. His rent also covers use of the kitchen and bathroom. Berkowitz said pods could also provide an innovative option for other city dwellers, since it offers more privacy than a partition. He encourages anyone who’s interested in pod living to contact him via email.

“…people have this dystopian take on it, like, ‘Is this what it’s come to?’ But I firmly believe that it makes a lot of sense. There should be some kind of middle ground between having a bedroom and sleeping on a couch,” he said.